Don't toss that

When you know slang words in other dialects of English, some things are unintentionally funny.
[Source]

A bank killer of a financial move

In November 2021, I refinanced the mortgage on our Hawaii house. We locked in a 1.99% interest rate on the remaining principal (~$590k) for 30 years.

Fast forward to today, and Republic First bank has gone gone into receivership. Why? Because in 2021, "Previous leadership invest[ed] heavily in long-duration securities with low fixed interest rates." As interest rates have risen since then, those securities have declined in value.
Then, in 2022, Republic First "grew [its] jumbo mortgage portfolio at below-market interest rates." Although our refinance was through a different lender, that very well describes what we did to the bank we refinanced with. We locked got a fixed, jumbo mortgage at what is now a below market rate. Not just below market, but below the current inflation rate.

Whether or not that situation is widespread, or if it represents a serious threat to the banking industry, only time will tell. Regardless, it represents one of the few time, to paraphrase Danny Ocean, when I've had the perfect hand, and I've bet big, and taken the house.

Paris trip, Day 2

The business district of Paris is called La Defense because of a statue in the area that commemorates the defense of Paris din the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. We started off our day there and went to the Louvre.
It was there that I realized that -- unlike during the last time I was here in Deceber 2001 -- Paris is a very busy place. We took one look at the long lines to get in and decided our time was better spent doing something else. Paris was gearing up for the summer Olympics at the time. So from there we walked over to Notre Dame, which is still under repair following the 2019 fire.
You might think that -- since the only thing going on was construction -- there wouldn't be many people around, but no. In fact, there were bleachers for people to sit on and watch the action.
Although I wasn't interested in sitting around, I did not object to a vin chaud.

In 2001, I got a great picture of the back of Notre Dame. Here's how it looks today versus back then.
From there we went to the Basilisque de Sacré Cœur de Montmartre...
... where the crowds were just as intense. As elsewhere, couples can't resist hanging locks on public landmarks. Then it was on to the Place de la Concorde, where we saw the Luxor Obelisk.
That was enough sightseeing for the day. We returned to La Defense for dinner at the mall.
"I empty my drink and leave my tray on the shelves. Don't take the dishes. We take care of everything!"
In addition to Korean and American food, there was also German.
Because of their participation in JROTC, we needed this picture in front of the Sergent Major clothing store.
We didn't get into the Louvre, but this was close enough.
And one other thing -- Paris has trash cans again. When I was here last, Paris was still reluctant to bring them back because of the bombings in the 1990s. Another fun day with the family.

Paris trip Day 1

With our hotel in La Défense (Paris' business district), we started our with a trip to the nearby Westfield Mall, where I saw an ice cream store that sold Bubbies -- a fond reminder of Hawai`i.

We then took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe... ... and walked past the Mission Catholique Italienne de Paris which is next to the Noura Traiteur café We walked to the Bateaux Mouche dock on the Seine ...
... and then to the Eiffel Tower. We thought about going to the top, but took one look at the long lines and noped out.
From there we walked to the Hotel des Invalides ...
... then north to the river, where we would see the Grand Palais, the obelisk France received in 1829, and a Thomas Jefferson statue.
We went past the Mazarine Library ... ... caught sight of Notre Dame and the Palais de Justice, and then called it a day. After about 7 hours and something like 30,000 steps, we'd seen enough of Paris -- at least for the time being.

France trip #6

My first trip to France was in April 1992, to the Haute Savoie region. My second was later that same year, in July -- I went to Lille. My third was to Paris in December 2001 (prices on airline tickets following the 9/11 terrorist attacks were low).

My third was in March 2023, as I drove my family across the Grande Est area. The fourth was October 2023; we did a simple, four-day weekend in Strasbourg.

You may think that's plenty enough, but for spring break this year, I prevailed on my family to visit Paris. We took the S-bahn train into Frankfurt, and then an ICE train from there to Gare de l'Est.

A trip to the consulate

While the U.S. is (generally) cool with dual citizenship, South Korea is not. When my wife naturalized in 2017, she had to go to the Korean consulate in Honolulu to de-register.

Our kids, however, did not -- they don't have to choose which one to keep until they turn 18.

There's a catch, though. Once a young man turns 18, he can't de-register unless he's served his mandatory [unpaid] military service, and a teenager who waits too long puts himself at risk of being drafted. This has happened to Korean-Americans who gone to Korea to teach English.
So today, my kids surrendered their South Korean citizenship at the consulate in Frankfurt. Not just my son, but my daughter as well -- given the country's collapsing birth rate and lingering security risks (looking at you, NK) the SK government has considered expanding the draft to include women.

If in the future my kids want to live or work in Korea, they can apply for an F-4 visa (same as my wife) but as of today, they'll have to use the "foreigner" line at the airport.

"A pirate's life for me"

Someone opened a school for pirates here in Germany.